


absent of cause or excuse

by drunkspacearchivist



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: (and we don't talk about it enough), Alex Mercer Has Anxiety (Julie and the Phantoms), Alive Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Angst, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Julie Molina Has Depression, M/M, Post-Canon, Reggie Peters Has ADHD (Julie and The Phantoms), Sporadic Updates, The Boys Come To Life AU, Trans Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), give me those sweet sweet kudos + comments, no one is straight, not important to the fic but important to me, pretty self indulgent, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28606389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunkspacearchivist/pseuds/drunkspacearchivist
Summary: They weren’t sure when exactly it happened. There was no big musical crescendo. No almost-goodbyes. No glowing lights.Or, one day the band finds out that Alex, Luke, and Reggie have come back to life. This has no repercussions at all, and everything is fine. Probably.Title from Achilles Come Down by Gang Of Youths (which is worth listening to all seven minutes of).
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Julie Molina, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Reggie Peters & Ray Molina
Comments: 20
Kudos: 102





	absent of cause or excuse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NewTimelineNewMe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewTimelineNewMe/gifts).



> My first time writing for JATP, so let me know if this is wildly out of character.
> 
> Comments and kudos always appreciated!

They weren’t sure when exactly it happened. There was no big musical crescendo. No almost-goodbyes. No glowing lights.

It had been almost two years since Julie and the boys met that fateful day in the studio, and those two years had been extremely eventful. They’d played the Orpheum. The boys became completely solid, but only for Julie. They got a record deal. Julie, Flynn, and Carrie reconciled. Julie got to punch Caleb. The band banished Caleb from Nick’s body, and sent to the afterlife, which freed the souls he owned. The girls graduated. The band wrote a song called “Limitless Love” that made the Billboard Top 10 and simultaneously became a pride anthem (which was definitely not what Julie and Luke had intended when they wrote a song about their relationship, but they did make that a major theme in the music video, which got #5 on the YouTube trending page.) Julie considered moving out. Ray suggested that they renovate the studio into a full apartment for Julie to live in for as long as she needed. They renovated the studio. And now, they were working on their first studio album, and they were hoping to do all new songs for this one.

(Their first EP had “Wake Up”, “Bright”, “Flying Solo”, “Finally Free”, “Edge of Great”,“Stand Tall”, and the aforementioned “Limitless Love”, and was simply titled, _Thank You Rose_ )

“I was thinking something like this,” Reggie said. He started a little riff that Julie could tell he’d been working on for a while.

Luke started doing a funky little shoulder dance. Julie giggled.

“Then I come in with a-” Alex started a beat on his box drum. Reggie slipped for a minute, but caught on to Alex’s beat quickly.

Julie started in with the lyrics. “My mama always told me not to stress so much/ About the little stuff/ You won’t remember it in a year or so-”

Someone knocked on the studio door. All four of them jumped. When Julie had first moved out here, she thought people would come out here less. The opposite ended up being true.

“Yeah?” Julie called.

Ray poked his head in the door. “Carlos and I are making sandwiches, do you want- oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.”  
Julie squinted at him. “Company?

“Um, yeah?” Ray said. “Wait a second, I know you boys. You’re in the band! You’re the Phantoms!”

“You can see us?” Luke said, eyes wide.

“Uh,” Ray was clearly getting more confused with every passing sentence. “Yes, yes I can see you. It’s nice to finally meet you all! I’m Ray, Julie’s dad.”

The band sat in shocked silence. Ray walked over, and held out his hand for the boys to shake. All of them stared at his hand. Just as Ray was about to drop his hand, Luke reached out and grabbed it.

_He grabbed Ray’s hand._

Even when the boys focused with all their might, they couldn’t touch any lifers other than Julie. 

“I…I’m Luke,” Luke said, for lack of better words.

“Ah, the pretty one,” Ray said. 

“What?” Luke said.

“Julie calls you the pretty one, you know,” Ray said. Julie was too shocked to defend herself.

After it was clear that the group was having a Moment(TM), Ray said, “Well, if any of you want a sandwich, come on into the kitchen. You boys are always welcome here.”

Ray left the studio, and closed the door behind him.

For a long while, it was silent. Then, Reggie spoke.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Alex said, slowly. 

Julie whipped out her phone, and sent a 911 to Flynn. She came within a few minutes.

“What’s- OH MY GOD,” Flynn yelled. 

“Can you see them?” Julie asked.

“Yes, I can see them!” Flynn said. “How are you doing that?” 

“We’re not doing anything!” Julie said. “Quick, try to touch them!”

In her moment of panicked shock, Flynn’s response to this was to put her entire hand on Reggie’s face.

“What is this supposed to accomplish?” Reggie said, his voice half muffled by Flynn’s hand.

“Uh, not to interrupt, but I can’t poof out,” Alex said.

Luke clenched his fists a few times, and did a sort of half-jump. “I can’t either!”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked.

Julie gasped, and suddenly put her hand on Luke’s chest. She moved it around slightly, before stopping. Tears formed in her eyes. “Your heart. I can feel your heartbeat.”

Luke looked up at her. “Are we… alive?”

No one quite knew how to respond to that.

“You know what?” Reggie said eventually. Everyone turned to look at him. “I’d really like one of those sandwiches.”

The five of them decided to go into the kitchen. At the very least, they could test if the boys could eat now.

Ray was still in the kitchen, and he smiled up at the group. “Hello, Flynn.”

“Hi,” Flynn said.

“Is everything okay?” Ray asked. “You kids look like you’ve seen a ghost."

“Nope, just living people,” Julie said.

“Ah, those are worse some days though,” Ray said. He chuckled.

Suddenly, Reggie ran up to him and wrapped him in a tight hug. Ray was startled, but after a moment he patted Reggie’s back.

“I’ve wanted to do this for years,” Reggie mumbled into Ray’s shoulder.

“Well, uh,” Ray awkwardly hugged him back. 

“Dad, don’t you have to get to that photoshoot?” Julie asked. Ray looked up at the clock, and jumped. 

“Shoot, I do. Sorry… Reggie? But I have to go,” Ray said. Reluctantly, Reggie let go. Ray grabbed his keys, and kissed Julie’s forehead before rushing out the door. Flynn and Julie got to work making sandwiches for the boys, and they put one in front of the boys.

“Well, moment of truth,” Luke said. Alex looked at his sandwich like it was going to bite _him_. Reggie was still pouting from Ray leaving. 

Luke picked up his sandwich, and took a slow bite. Then, his eyes lit up, and he took several more bites in quick succession. Spurred on by Luke’s success, the other two dove in. 

“This is the best sandwich I’ve ever had,” Luke said.

“I could eat seven more of these,” Reggie said. 

“Well, you can make them yourself,” Julie laughed.

“I don’t get it,” Flynn said. “How did you guys come back to life?”

“No clue,” Alex said. “And honestly, it’s worrying me.”

“Alex, chill out man,” Reggie said. “This is probably the greatest thing to happen to us. There’s no way there could be any downside to this situation.”

There were, in fact, downsides to this situation. Just not ones they had thought of yet. But those would come sooner than anyone knew.


End file.
